Own less. Live more. Finding minimalism in a world of consumerism.

How to Stage Your Home for Living

Now, most of these moves took place when I was young. But since getting married to my wife 15 years ago, we have lived in 5 different homes. Needless to say, moving is something I have become accustomed to. And as a result, I have become familiar with the process of buying and selling houses.

Each time we have sold a home, we have been advised by our realtor to “stage our home for selling.”

So then, in the weeks prior to our house hitting the market, we spent numerous hours “staging our home” for the sale. We did the research describing what makes a home attractive to a potential buyer and put most of their recommendations into place. By the end, our house looked better than it ever had since moving in—and then we sold it to some lucky family.

Each time, I can’t help but be struck by the irony of the situation. We spend countless hours getting our home into its best possible condition, only to leave it? Most of the time while staging our home for sale, I wondered why we had never put in the effort to stage our home for living. You know, so we could have actually enjoyed it more while we called it home.

To not make the same mistake we did, consider setting aside a weekend to stage your house for living. The process will take some time, energy, and money. It will take some intentional effort. But in the end, your home just may look better than the day you bought it. And maybe, just maybe, it could be a little bit of fun too.

A Step-by-Step Process to Stage Your Home for Living.

Remove 1/3 of your possessions. Those who stage a home for sale will tell you to remove roughly 33% of your personal possessions from the property. Less stuff means your rooms/closets have room to breathe and feel more spacious. A decluttered home is calm and inviting.

This may be easier if you were actually moving (natural purging almost always takes place during transition), but if you wouldn’t take it with you when you moved, why let it take up space in your life today?

Grab some cardboard boxes and walk through your home room-by-room, closet-by-closet, and drawer-by-drawer. Collect all the stuff you no longer need or love. Donate it, sell it, or give it away.

If you need some added inspiration in this area, try our e-book, Simplify.

Find a home for everything. Walking again through your home, make note of the items that are stored in your field of vision (think countertops, toys, entertainment units). Why are those items stored out in the open? Are they in the wrong room? Are they too big to be stored out of sight? Is their proper home too crowded? Intentionally identify the visible clutter. Ask questions to identify the problem. And brainstorm a new solution.

Find new places to store these items out of sight. Visible clutter pulls at our attention and distracts us on an ongiong basis. On the other hand, clean, undistracted rooms promote relaxation and intentionality.

Declutter counter tops, cupboards, and drawers. Buyers always open cupboards, drawers, and closets. Unfortunately, storage spaces packed too tightly look small, unsightly, and counter-productive. Remove unneeded items from everyday storage spaces. This won’t be difficult. You have likely collected a number of items over the years that are no longer necessary. At this point, they are only taking up space in your storage areas. Discard them. As an added benefit, you just may realize you have had enough storage space all along.

Personalize your decorations. Realtors and professional home stagers will ask you to remove most of your personal decorations as it subtly communicates “I live here, not you,” to your potential buyer. And that is not a good aura to give the future residents of your home.

However, when staging your home for living, leave the personal decorations. Even better, capitalize on them! Rather than devaluing them, highlight them by removing some of the non-personal decorations in your home. As a result, the ones that make you unique will play a more pronounced role in your home.

Consider curb appeal. Realtors will tell you that you can never spend too much attention on curb appeal. Your potential buyer will likely make their decision on your home within the first few minutes of entering. Therefore, first impressions are the most important. And the very first impression they receive is when they pull into your driveway.

If you have children, clean up their toys. If you have shrubs, prune them. Lay fresh mulch. Put some grass seed on the bare spots in your yard. Paint your foundation. Plant some flowers. After all, you pull into your driveway almost everyday of your life. Don’t you want to pull into something you’d like to purchase all over again?

Clean thoroughly. Clean the surface. Then, clean deeper. Give extra attention to corners and windows and hard-to-reach areas. Just like in the bathroom, make clean and bright your goal. If you’ve successfully removed a good portion of personal possessions, you’ll find this task far easier to complete.

Complete minor repairs. Take a notepad and create a to-do list of minor home repairs such as wall nicks, paint touch-ups, squeaky doors, running toilets, loose pieces, and burnt out light bulbs. Most of the minor repairs can be handled in less than 20 minutes for less than $15 and can be found with a simple Google search.

Eventually, the repairs need to happen. And if they have to be taken care of before you sell your house anyway, why not repair them when you can actually enjoy them too? The investment sure beats walking back into your bathroom to wiggle the handle on a running toilet 3 times a day.

Tackle a major repair. Roof about to go? Replace it. Leaky basement? Research your solutions. Kitchen appliances barely working? Go for it. These major repairs can be costly. And I’d never advise you to go into debt to stage your home for living. But if the time ever comes when your house does indeed need to be sold, an inspector/realtor will ask you to solve the problems. And if it gets to that, you’ll be paying for someone else to enjoy them rather than yourself.

Likely the hardest part of staging your home for living is finding the motivation to get started. I get it. Life gets busy. And without the potential for a future sale on the horizon, it can be difficult to get started. So you just may need to artificially create the momentum to get started in the process. That is, unless the simple fact that you live everyday in this home is motivation enough.

About Joshua Becker

Comments

Ha! Yes! I had just been thinking about the concept of “staging ones home” yesterday. In recent years, I have been casually studying surroundings to discern what appeals to me. My goal is to create an environment in our home that is “drop-in” ready; I want to be wide open to company without the jet-lag that can occur from maelstrom clean-up events.

It struck me as funny that staging is done to sell a home, yet we often live in a virtual cacophony of stimuli. I sort of rejected the idea of staging years ago thinking it was sort of a false representation of daily life. Yesterday it hit me, “Why not clear out enough that ones home is spacious to the minds eye, inviting the rest as well as creative thought?”

So glad you are writing this blog! It is really helping me to formulate a plan to acquire visual serenity. :)

This is such a perfectly timed post. My husband and I have had the exact same discussion over the past week. Why get our house into great condition just to leave it? We should get it into great condition so we can enjoy it and not want to leave it. Now, we just need to get motivated to get it done!

One aspect of decluttering decor that always seems to pose a challenge is what I consider the “guilt item.” Those things that you just “can’t” take down or get rid of because “what would my mother in law think when she visits if this thing she gave me were no longer hung up or displayed?” I used to have many of those items, but no more. I have created a small storage area for some the smaller things she’s given us. I can either display one or more of her things during her visit or tell her that I like to rotate the decor to keep things fresh. It may be a cop-out, and maybe I should take the step of purging those items, but the little storage that it requires seems worth preserving the peace with my inlaws.

Ive thought this countless times as I watched friends do all the work to prepare a living space to sell. Seems to be if im not worth a space that is clean, repaired, and peaceful, then I have a problem with myself. I am currently updating my kitchen for me. It feels wonderful!

I appreciate you and the time you take to share your thoughts. I have a great affinity for the ideas you share and feel glad to know that so many others do as well.
I admit to feeling a touch isolated or weird when I began because of how much against the grain it is in our society to actively seek to toss and minimize.

A few weeks ago I magically arrived at ‘enough’ and ‘goodbye to disorganisation’ so I forensically tackled ‘my stuff’ and can honestly list my jewellery inventory from the top of my head, my kitchen contents, my wardrobe (I realised my wardrobe theme is black because I feel good in this colour and it is able to bridge casual to elegant) etc. How freeing it feels; my spirit feels so much lighter as I know what is in my life and I have set limitations (which means the desire to shop aimlessly or hunger for a new kitchen appliance I won’t ever use is over!).

I have to say from a man’s perspective it is clear that the staging process is done for the woman more than the man. I get the whole “decluttering” thing to make a home look more spacious but some of this process makes me believe that men are just passengers in the process of purchasing a home. Case in point, me and my wife are separating and selling the family home. We have battled over the place of my son’s hockey net in the backyard. I say it stays (tucked in the corner of the backyard when the house will have potential buyers viewing the house) and she says it goes. If a hockey net in a backyard is a dealbreaker for you to buy a home I would advise you need to seek professional help. Making a home inviting to live in SHOULD take into account all potential buyers but right now whith the frilly pillows and artwork I have seen in most staged homes they appear less functional and inviting, at least from a man’s perspective.

I’m a woman and I find an excess of pillows to be annoying, lol. For some reason the stagers karate chop the top center of pillows before they display them (at least, I’ve seen this on TV). I don’t get it. I don’t think it looks attractive ha.

But please, PLEASE don’t paint your foundation. You’re making something that’s neutral and low-maintenance …not neutral and low-maintenance. Lately, as I’ve been looking at houses, every once in a while there’s an, “Ugh. They painted the foundation.”

Excellent advice! I recently read a post on Houzz that was published around Thanksgiving. It was all about being grateful & thankful for your home. Houzz is a site for those who are “into” interior design and remodeling… but this article inspired me to “clean it, fix it, and be thankful”. I even began a journal to write out those things I appreciate about my home. P.S. I especially like to “search” for minimalist ideas on Houzz!

My thoughts exactly, beautiful! I’ve always wondered why people fix up and de clutter for the next buyers, why wouldn’t you want to live this way anyway, where have you been who wrote this article all my life, I totally one hundred percent agree with you!! Thank you for putting this out there.

I’ve always been more on the minimalist side of life. Recently we renovated our kitchen & family room and I went crazy in the purging process of the entire house and discovered this blog in the process. This is my calling. Has brought so much more clarity on many different levels. Much gratitude to you Joshua!

I just love this. I am hoping to achieve this over the next year. The penny dropped when my stepmother died and all herpossessions were given to good will aside from her jewelry and paintings. Living with less feels so great!

Thanks so much for the tips. I’ve spent the better part of the last year decluttering, so I think it might be time for me to move onto some of the other things you mentioned. Cabinets and drawers might be next!

Why do we often wait until we are trying to sell our house to someone else before making it look great?!? And why does “living in a house” so often equal “we can be as messy as we want to”? An uncluttered house keeps me calm, a messy one stresses me out. I want my house to be a sanctuary; I want to come home to calm and leave the chaos behind.

I plan on putting my house on the market in 2 years. The carpets were shot and needed replaced so I decided to replace with hardwood now so I could enjoy them in the meantime. Thanks for justifying my decision! Lol!

AGREE!!!!! I’ve lately become obsessed with improving home on a five year plan to move, after a retirement and child graduates, and downsizing and moving to a small lakeside home. I am in process of rewriting to-do list to have house ready for sale in Four years. Lots of purging to go yet. But figure I might as well enjoy the improvements while living there.

Not feeling well and trying to accomplish goals that are very physical does often take a bit more creativity.
I have multiple health conditions that make coming home from work and focusing on day to day tasks difficult. Add in my goals to declutter my home and it can be overwhelming. What I have learned, particularly after my last year of working to declutter my home is that you have to be understanding when you can’t do something and take advantage of the days you can. The worse things you can do is get upset with yourself or tell yourself negative things when you have a bad day. The more you get down on yourself the worse you feel emotionally and physically.
As far as still getting things done when you’re not well you need to adjust your expectations. Use that goal list you mentioned and review it with fresh eyes. Seperate out anything you can do easily when you aren’t feeling well. Then acknowledged that on a day that is bad you will try to maybe do one thing from that list. Pick something on the list that fits how you’re feeling and adjust how you perform it to fit any limitations you may have.
The bigger projects on your remaining list should be reviewed for what can be broken down into smaller tasks and bigger tasked saved for the days you feel a bit better. On top of everything give yourself extra time to complete each task and if you have a day or week you can’t do anything accept it as the way things are and move on with a positive attitude that next week will be better. Attitude helps a lot in this area.
If all this is still not feasible based on different factors there are other options. You can hire a professional to come help you. If you want it cheaper search for someone who is trying to get into the business of decluttering and organizing people’s home. If that is still to costly. Talk to your church or community center about finding a volunteer or two to help you. Offer to give them everything you decide to donate during the process. Some organizations will have volunteers willing to help to get more items for a church garage sale or community center homeless or underprivileged program.

Keep in mind your victories. So you didn’t get the whole closet cleaned out today, oh well. Hey, you did get rid of those shoes you hated or that shirt that doesn’t fit. One less thing in your home is a step in the right direction. When you’re not feeling well little victories to others ARE big victories.

I am grateful to all minimalist authors for contributing reducing CO2 emissions. The more written the more inspired to consume less.
I test myself occasionally by living without sight. If I NEED sight to locate any item in my own home then I have to much.

When we did our first big declutter, we did it with the intention of downsizing to a smaller place. After decluttering we liked it so much that we almost stayed. We did finally sell and downsize, and have moved a couple of times since. We follow most of the tips you suggested here. The most rewarding aspect of it for me is, walking in the house when I get home from work and seeing the clean and uncluttered space. It feels great to get home and feel the sense of peace that comes with a decluttered home staged for living.

I was told of a man that absolutely could not finish their home.
He and his wife decided to sell it due to weariness of living in the unfinished space. However upon listing it, they were required to finish it. The man finished the house in only 2 weeks. His wife divorce him.

Oh, my goodness. You must have been reading my mind. I have seriously been thinking about this very thing. Why did we live in half-finished projects, sub-par decorating and all that clutter for so many years and then wrap it all up right before we move on????

This article really resonates with me. My husband and I have always wondered why people “fix up” their homes to sell them. We take very good care of our home, make repairs as needed and updates (as the budget allows), clean thoroughly all the time, keep clutter at bay and things picked up. Yes, we live in our home and enjoy it, but we also enjoy keeping it up to date and pride ourselves in our home looking nice. We don’t do this to impress anyone. We do this to enjoy the space we live in.

The author of this article is spot on. Don’t fix up your house just to sell it to someone else. Fix it up and enjoy it while you live there.

Another benefit to living like this, is that when the time comes to sell your home, you will have very little to do to “stage” it for selling.